Writing Isn't Always "Writing"

I've reached a point in my revision where I must stop and let my characters reveal the story to me before I jump into the next revision.

Confession: Patience is not one of my higher virtues. I must be forced by circumstances to be patient.

The circumstances I face are:

A) Guests coming in for a week. I am very excited about the family visit. I can't wait to see my brother, my SIL and my niece. We have a lot of fun things planned. This is their first visit to the Southeast. I want to make it a memorable one. This also means not writing a lot.

B) Battling the VA again regarding my FIL's insurance claims. That's phone calls and waiting and phone calls and waiting and ... lots of time finding the right person to help us help my FIL. He's dying of cancer, his wife is focused on him, and we are fighting for his rights. That's called real life. Sometimes real life has to come first.

C) Waiting for responses from my CPs regarding my story sketch. I spent a great deal of time interviewing my characters. My heroine has come out and I KNOW her story. Other characters have revealed themselves. I've got oodles written in backstory regarding the history of why my heroine is where she is and why she wants to stay. I KNOW her inside and out. My hero? Oh, he's being cagey. There's a hole because I had to eliminate so many elements of his backstory to even out the tone of the story. And that leaves me questioning why he's back home--it's not just to stop his mom from making, in his mind, a monumental mistake. But he's not fessing up. That means going to the Villain and asking him. I need to interview him and see what he knows.

D) Researching and brainstorming ideas in general. Looking up information about the laws in my state regarding the subject matter. This takes time.

So writing is not always about getting the story revised. Writing is about breaking down the elements and thinking/muddling/talking about the story. I've sat down in front of the computer three times now. I've written a first draft and two revisions. I've entered contests and received feedback regarding the storyline and the characters. I've been critiqued by a published author and learned more about why my middle is sagging at a workshop. All of these elements, the lessons I've learned, the positive and constructive feedback I've received are gelling in my mind and forcing me to seriously evaluate where the story is going before I sit down to revise it again.

The only problem with this stage of the revision is that inspiration strikes at odd times. I'm not always focused on the real world tasks because one of my characters pipes up and prods me with their information. I have to write this information down quickly or I might lose it. I'm living in two worlds: my fictional world and my real world. And they collide on occasion.

The good news is I believe this dual life is helping me shake out the story elements. I'm not feeling pressured to know all the answers this week. I just want to let the characters reveal themselves to me while I clean the kitty litter, shop for groceries for my company, do laundry, exercise, set up the guest room and make my phone calls.

This is all good. I am glad I am forced to be patient. I'll be released to write soon enough.

What do you do between revisions? How do you approach your story problems?